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‘Angel of South’ planned to uplift London Games

Southern England is to have its own version of the Angel of the North in time for the 2012 Olympics under a plan to be unveiled this week.

Leading sculptors such as Antony Gormley, who designed the original statue outside Gateshead, and Anish Kapoor are to be invited to submit proposals for an edifice that would be visible from 20 miles away.

The project's organisers have compared the idea with the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, which stands on a mountaintop overlooking the ocean. The British equivalent would be built on a hillside just outside a railway station: Ebbsfleet, in north Kent, will be one of the main stations for visitors arriving from Europe at the 2012 Games.

The £2m statue has been commissioned by a consortium including Eurostar and London & Continental Railways - operators of the Channel tunnel rail link - and Land Securities, the property